Huaian City in Jiangsu Province has explored a new way of food safety governance through an integration with the Internet in recent years.

Zhang Beijing, Catering Operations Manager at Jiangsu College of Nursing, usually has his busiest time on a typical working day at noon. He needs to buy 500 kilograms of vegetables from the Xintiandi Wholesale Vegetable Market. Almost every pillar in the college’s dining room is equipped with a video camera to live broadcast every move of kitchen staff.

The scenes at the college are just part of the food safety information system that Huaian has been actively developing. The system maintains a strict control of food production, from the checks of raw materials to the quality of the finished products, through the digital labeling of goods and a transparent process.

Huaian is also the first city in China to establish a food safety repose system, similar to the working mechanism of police number 110. The system has embedded six functions - to accept and deal with complaints, allocate resources and coordinate, delegate tasks accordingly, rapid response, online supervision and data analysis. The city makes effort to turn the system into a center for food and drug safety complaints, a center for information collection and distribution, a rapid response center, and a support center for decision-making.